New York State Department of Labor — Local services in City of Albany

This past year, I lost my job for which I was wrongfully terminated. I am a professional and a college educated individual and person of color. I applied for unemployment in May and since then after providing all of my information, I have consistently called and can prove to have called over 1000 times. Each time you call it does not matter the time of the day, you cannot reach anyone, You are told to call back at a different time. The issue here beyond the fact that I am clearly unemployment, have no guidance and no benefits is that the two times which I have reached someone each time after waiting on hold for over two hours I was spoken very rudely to. I was not assisted, I was not told my options of next steps , I was simply told they would provide the information and put it into their system and I needed to wait for a letter in the mail. I have been waiting for over two months for a letter in the mail. I have exhausted every channel of communication I can try with no resolution. While this may seem reasonable to you, this is so degrading. For over 400 years people of color have been undersupported and overlooked this is again happening with me and Im certain hundreds of other people whether of color or not. Unemployment insurance is a benefit which you are eligible and entitled to based on criteria, it is intended to help people and yet when needed you do not help people. People are ending up homeless as a result, people are hungry as a result . People are committing crimes, committing suicides as a result of consistently being kicked down while they are already down and not receiving the resources they need. People are doing this and yet no one is helping them when they are looking for solutions . No one is looking into the needs of people. Losing your job is an already traumatic experience to further deal with people employed by the state and labor departments who are public servants of the people and only speak to you in a rude manner and kick you down further, well It is unacceptable and I write this because it is unacceptable and you all must make a change. In addition, there are people who need assisted services when calling, That line does not even work, Imagine a government office who does not help even people with disability. When I get back on my feet, I will open a company that will actually help people in their time of need. You...

The department of labor does not take any calls. Does not do any work. Does not help the citizens of NYC. My fiancé Isaiah Green’s identity was stolen during COVID-19. Unemployment fraud is the case I wanted investigated on his behalf. He cannot file for unemployment because it can’t be sent to him. It would be sent to the thief who took his unemployment money under his social security when he was actively working during COVID. I wanted an investigation on this matter especially since this is going on for 4 years now. He has contacted the fraud department, department of labor, unemployment office, you name it. He has contacted it all, received papers stating that his identity was stolen, and that it was not him that claimed unemployment, and yet we still deal with this problem because all of these office do not communicate with one another. He wants access to this unemployment account that the thief made in order to receive that money. He wants access to it so he can change it and put HIS correct (banking) information and receive his ACTUALLY NEEDED unemployment money today. With that being said, these offices do nothing and try to pretend like they do. This county needs to do better for the people who pay taxes to the state and just want to live happy and...

Apparently I'm not the only one having issues filed my claim in March with all my other coworkers for partial unemployment. Still haven't received a payment the one person I managed to get to talk to over a week ago said it was because I had two pto days and the my claim was under review and that it would take weeks to be reviewed. While I was on the phone she said she was going to "fix" my claim date. I thought sure that's helpful hopefully it moves things along. Well unfortunately instead it erased all my certifications up to that point so when I went to certify again like I do each Sunday it said I hadn't certified since 3/21/2021. It's kind of like the nightmare just keeps getting worse and worse I call dozens of times every day no one answers I send messages from my inbox online no one answer I even tried their Twitter. Now rents coming due and I don't know how I ll make it through another month. My boss feels sorry for me but there's nothing they can do for me on their end so I guess this is just where I'm at now. Missing out on weeks worth of paychecks and financially screwed I really don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to hold...